At this time of year, business owners and managers like us look ahead to the start of another year. Who knows what 2022 has in store?
Do you have big targets and goals for the year? Are you now reviewing your budgets for 2022?
It’s reported that 56% of businesses plan to increase IT support spending next year, primarily due to the flexible working changes encouraged by the pandemic.
But while you’ve probably wondered at least once “what exactly are we paying for?”, it’s unlikely you’ve ever considered whether you’re paying enough for your IT and technology support.
😳
We get it, these are unusual times. Even in the best economy, you don’t want to throw money away or spend more than you need to.
But technology is different – very different. There’s a reason we say we partner with our clients. Because we’re not just a supplier, giving them a service.
That’s the easy thing to do. We decided a long time ago it’s not something we want to do.
Instead, we get deeply involved in every aspect of their business and its future growth. This is an in-depth and highly resource-heavy process. Yet it’s totally necessary, so we can:
Fully understand every single business we’re working with
Ensure their technology makes it easy for them to hit their growth goals
And ensure their technology never, ever holds them back
This is one of the reasons our clients choose to stay with us for years and years and years.
Picking an IT provider on price alone is a false economy. If you’re paying too little, you’re running one of these four big risks:
Big risk #1: You’re getting a cheap service rather than a true partnership
The goal should NOT be to pay as little as you can to your IT support provider. You know the old saying: ‘If something seems too good to be true, it probably is’.
One of the biggest marketing headaches we have in our business is that ordinary business owners and managers (like you) don’t truly understand technology and all the complexities that go with it.
To be fair, you don’t really need to. We’re here to translate it for you.
But it means when you compare the offerings and prices of different IT companies, you might think you’re comparing apples to apples… when actually you’re comparing apples to oranges.
If a supplier is cheap, it’s for a reason. Perhaps they don’t invest in all the clever tools that keep their clients safe. There are lots of them, but they’re all 100% necessary to provide a consistent, quality service.
You know the other old saying… “if you pay peanuts…you get monkeys.”
This also leads to the next big risk…
Big risk #2: Your provider is under resourced
Anyone can set up an IT support company. There are zero barriers to entry. And a lot of these new starters are technicians who have decided to go it alone.
Nothing wrong with that. That’s how our business started a very long time ago.
What they soon discover (as we quickly found out) is that these days there is a LOT more to truly proactive technology support, than just fixing computers when they are broken.
That way of thinking about IT support expired 10 – 15 years ago. Today as a technology partner, it’s our job to think strategically about cyber security, infrastructure, and your business growth.
That means working ahead to prevent problems, and doing strategic reviews to ensure you are truly supporting every client in every way.
Our entire business is built around this way of working.
The problem with a lone technician who is out winning clients in the day and then servicing them in the evening, is they struggle to operate at a strategic level. If you personally started your business, you’ll know what it’s like in the first few years.
As much as we all “wing it” a bit at the start, you really, really don’t want to put the technology strategy and data security of your business in the hands of someone who’s in that startup zone.
Because another risk is…
Big risk #3: Your provider is not proactively doing what they should be doing to keep your business and its data protected. This leads to your staff suffering decreased productivity and increased hassle
It’s great to have an IT support company available when things go wrong. There’s a lot to be said for the benefits of a responsive helpdesk.
However, the real goal is for you and your team to NOT have to contact the helpdesk regularly.
You see, a big part of the way your technology partner should work is to take a 100% strategic approach.
And then fixing those problems, before anyone is even aware of them.
It’s in everyone’s best interests to reduce the number of times you have to reach out for support. Your people are more productive, and it’s more efficient for us to plan proactive work than respond to reactive work.
This also includes keeping everything updated, all the time. Hardware and software. It’s one of the most important practices of data security. And something our team is laser-focused on every day.
Let’s move to the final risk…
Big risk #4: You will quickly outgrow them
We’re all pursuing business growth. But it will cause huge problems if your business outgrows your IT support provider.
That’s more about the attitude of the IT business’s leadership, than the size of it.
Of course, this higher level of strategic support comes with a higher cost. But it’s worth bearing in mind that you really do get what you pay for. You’re effectively paying to insure your business against a total disaster.
Time to talk about your business in 2022.
Back to that question again – are you paying enough for your IT support?
If you’re not getting the level of service that you think you should be, the answer is probably no.
Is it time to do something about it?
Whenever your contract ends in 2022, it’s worth us having a conversation now.
Dropsuite is a cloud software platform enabling businesses and organizations globally to easily backup, recover and protect their important business information including emails, contacts, calendars and OneDrive/Sharepoint files. Compliant email backup and archive system with a 10-year retention policy.
Vade Secure:
Vade Secure is an AI-based email security solution to improve security for Office 365 and block advanced phishing, spear phishing, and advanced malware threats. Vade Secure analyzes emails, webpages, attachments, and images with machine learning and deep learning algorithms that are trained to detect behaviors and anomalies common to advanced email threats.
Office Protect:
Office Protect is a service that’s designed to help you secure your Microsoft 365 tenant. Using our powerful in-house security software, our analysts actively monitor for threats, investigate alerts, eliminate false positives, and provide guided response and remediation. Protects against account break-ins, data exfiltration, business email compromise, phishing, internal threats, lateral movement, ransomware, and attacks by nation states.
Dark Cubed:
Dark Cubed focuses on real-time monitoring, threat intelligence, predictive analytics, elegant dashboard, streamlined workflow, executive reporting and active blocking. This is another layer of security that integrates with the firewall.
ThreatLocker:
ThreatLocker is a zero-trust endpoint security tool giving companies control over what software can run, by whom, and what data can be accessed.
It keeps a full detailed audit of what applications are used and data accessed/transferred/deleted and by what users (signature tracking, etc.) If something unusual happens, such as a signature change, or a user opens an application that is out of their normal routine the administrator is alerted. This is a crucial tool in identifying malware threats, as well as helping organizations identify if users are accessing applications and/or data/ files they should not be.
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Huntress:
Huntress is a supplement to SentinelOne. Hackers are becoming more sophisticated, and Huntress actively seeks out these threat actors with a "defend forward" mentality. This software combines both advanced security tools along with human intervention to ensure even the most advanced hackers can't penetrate your network.
SentinelOne:
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